


Sweet Tooth

by meils121



Category: Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-26
Updated: 2014-03-26
Packaged: 2018-01-17 03:23:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1372087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meils121/pseuds/meils121
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eliot finds it difficult to bake when there's a thief with a sweet tooth around.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sweet Tooth

            Eliot realizes he should have known that baking while a thief with a sweet tooth is around is a bad idea. An entire bag of chocolate chips disappears in the seconds it takes him to crack an egg. He storms out of the kitchen only to find Parker sitting serenely on the couch, the chocolate chips nowhere to be seen. But he knows it was her. Same way he knows it was her when a huge spoonful of cookie dough goes missing several minutes later, and when an entire cookie-sheet-worth of cookies vanishes while he is cleaning up the counter.

            “How can anyone eat that much and still be so tiny?” Eliot growls to no one in particular.

            The next time he bakes cookies, he makes sure Hardison takes Parker out for the afternoon. He can feel Parker watching him suspiciously the whole time it takes Hardison to get her out the door, but Eliot has made sure that he didn’t mention what he is about to do. He wants to set out a plate of cookies for the whole team, and there is no way that will happen if Parker knows he is baking. So Eliot waits patiently for Hardison to pull on more layers of clothing than is really necessary – Boston isn’t that cold, Eliot thinks, not compared to that godawful winter he spent in Russia – and tries not to break under Parker’s stare.

            It takes all of twenty minutes for Hardison to text him that he lost Parker. Eliot growls and turns around to find there was an honest-to-God handful of dough missing from the mixing bowl.

            “Can’t you at least wait until they’re cooked?” Eliot yells, but the apartment is already empty. A few minutes later he gets another text from Hardison – “hang on, I found her!” and realizes that if he wants to bake without Parker stealing anything, he’s going to have to employ more drastic measures.

            He tries again with Sophie’s birthday cake. None of them actually know Sophie’s real birthday, but Sophie will occasionally declare that her birthday is coming up, and it’s never until after the fact that the rest of them realize it hasn’t been a year since the last time she said that. Eliot warns Nate that he has to keep an eye on Parker or there won’t be a birthday cake. He figures that between Nate and Hardison – and Eliot’s own stern talk with Parker reminding her that this cake was for Sophie – they might actually have a chance. He makes the cake, no problem, and even bribes Parker with licking the spoon. He’s hopefully until he turns around from checking if the cake is cool enough to frost and is just in time to see the whole bowl of frosting being whisked out of the kitchen.

            “Hey, man, at least you saw her do it this time.” Hardison consoles him when Eliot’s whipping up another batch of frosting.

            “You had one job to do!” 

            “She’s fast.” Hardison reminds him, and there’s really nothing Eliot can say to argue with that.

            Hardison tries to swipe a taste of the frosting and stops when Eliot fixes the sort of glare he normally reserves for men he’s about to destroy. “I will break all of your fingers.” Eliot hisses, and doesn’t even feel guilty when Hardison leaves the room almost as fast as Parker did.

            There’s a sliver of cake missing when Sophie goes to blow out her candles. Nate and Sophie take one look at Eliot’s face and wisely don’t mention it.

            The next time he bakes, Eliot locks every door in the apartment and has Hardison install an alarm that’ll sound if anyone crosses into the kitchen. Parker comes in through the window, and Eliot really only has himself to blame for not taking that into account. He just thinks that really, baking shouldn’t require the sort of strategic plans they’d used back in his Army days.

            Eliot’s birthday is the one that rolls around next, and he’s expecting something homemade given how long the rest of the team spends banging around in the kitchen. Eliot yells that they better not break his mixing bowls and goes back to watching the game. Sophie and Hardison leave at some point and come back with an ice cream cake. It gets set in front of Eliot before they even take off their coats.

            “You were right.” Sophie says. “She took the whole cake!”

            “It wasn’t that good.” Parker says. She’s pouting and eyeing the cake in front of Eliot. “I like when you make things much better.”

            It’s the first time that Parker’s actually admitted to stealing a baked good, and Eliot might call it progress except Parker’s currently eating a spoonful of his ice cream cake that she dug out from the center.

            Parker’s kind enough to leave a slice of cake behind for Hardison on his birthday. Nate only gets his birthday cake because Eliot bribes the little old lady who runs the Chinese restaurant they always order from to let him use her kitchen. Parker meets him outside as he’s bringing the cake, and by the look on her face he figures that was a one-time-only sort of solution.

            Eliot’s all but given up trying to bake, and Parker’s taken to moping around the apartment and giving him puppy-dog eyes. It’s not until her birthday is right around the corner that Eliot starts putting together a plan. It involves Hardison as a distraction and Nate and Sophie as lookouts. Eliot spends the entire time it takes him to bake the cake and frost it jumping at every little sound and waiting for the warning text from Hardison that Parker slipped away. Parker doesn’t show up when he’s pouring the cake batter into the pan. She’s nowhere to be found as he starts beating the frosting. He’s waiting and waiting for something to go missing, but nothing does. He’s more than a little suspicious when he puts the final touches on the cake. Eliot gives the others the all-clear and holds the cake the entire time it takes for the others to return.

            Parker’s eyes light up when she sees the cake, and she actually waits for the others to finish singing happy birthday before she sticks her finger into the frosting. Eliot hands her the knife so she can start cutting pieces.

            “You didn’t steal anything.” He says, because he’s actually pretty curious. He went through all that effort, after all, and he’s honestly surprised Parker didn’t try anything.

            Parker looks up from the cake. She’s put down the knife in favor of a fork, and around a mouthful of cake she tells him, “That’s because it’s my birthday, silly. I get the whole cake anyway.”


End file.
